My beautiful niece Gracie was recently diagnosed with Neuroblastoma (cancer). It is still early in the diagnosis and we are awaiting results to know more about the fight that Gracie will face. I've created this blog as an outlet for friends and family to stay informed about her journey and a way for friends and family to make anonymous contributions towards her care and the mounting expenses her family will face. Gracie is a fighter and the bravest 3 year old I know. Hundreds of people love you Gracie and are praying for you. "Be strong and of good courage for the Lord thy God is with thee" Joshua 1:9

Saturday, January 28, 2012

We woke up at 415 and got Ready to go! We got to the airport at 510 and allchecked in by 540. The flight didn't leave til 715 so we had plenty of time. Thekids loved watching the planes. We hadn't flown in 5 years. (shad and brandonwent a couple years ago for hunting) The last time we flew all together was fromWatertown to salt lake for shaylas wedding and Christmas in 2006. Gracie was 5months old. So this was her first time to remember it. She loved it and so didVon. The flight went well and we arrived around 1215. After we got off the planethere was a volunteer from Give kids the worlds with a sign that said Gracie.She showed us the way to baggage claim and Avis car rental where they hadarranged a minivan for us and carseats. They gave us a map and told us how toget to gktw. It was a 30 min drive from the airport and disneyworld is only 10min from there:) when we got to gktw we were given a packet of info and toldwhere everything was. Gktw is a large area in and of itself with fun things forkids. Games pony rides pools water fun movies etc. Plus free dining and icecream all day. U can even have it delivered to your villa. Our villa is reallynice. It is a 2 bedroom 2 bath with pull out sofa bed and rollaway bed. KitchenLr and laundry room stocked with everything. We had some lunch and ice cream.We unpacked and there was a note from mrs schaefer that she told me to put inGracie's suitcase since she had been telling Gracie to take her in hersuitcase. :) she said that way she really did come in her suitcase. Graciethought that was so funny. Mrs schaefer was pretty sneaky! Lol then we had thekids take a little nap while Brandon went to the orientation. They were out likea light within minutes despite their protesting beforehand of how "not tired"they were! At orientation he got all the info and our attraction tickets. 3days to Disney, 2 to universal studios, and 1 to sea world! She has a button towear showing that she is a wish kid and it gets her special things. We also gota fast pass for the family to go to the front of the lines. Tuesday night wespent at the pool and splash pad area. They were having a big splash bash BBQwith games and cotton candy and snow cones. Shad got second place in the musicalhula hoops game. When u got out u got a bucket of cold water poured on yourhead. Chloe got out toward the beginning. They all had a lot of fun. We went tobed around 930 and woke up on wed at 730. We went over to the horse rides rightat 8 and the boys didn't want to but Chloe and Gracie did and loved it. They allgot a cowboy hat, although they only fit Gracie an Von. Lol . Then we hadbreakfast and then rode the carousel at gktw. Then we headed to Disney at 9 fora 10 o'clock appointment to meet the princesses. We thought we had enough timesince it is only 15 miles away but it was quite a process to get inside magicKingdom. We got there right at 10. Gracie loved seeing the princesses and givingthem a hug. They gave us a photo card that they scan and they have profphotographers and they scan your card and u can get a cd of all the pictures ofyour trip. Really neat. She met aurora, belle, and Cinderella at the firstplace, and tinkerbell and vidia at another spot, and finally rapanzel at anotherplace. We were given a special pass that gets the whole gaily to the front ofthe lines. That saved us an amazing amount of time. The place was crowded forsure. We rode 5 rides in one hour. We rode a lot of rides, had lunch and dinner,and then I took the girls tothe bibbidy bobbidy boutique for a makeover whileBrandon took the boys on another ride and then saved our seat for the parade.They waited there for almost 2 hours, what good sports :) the girls LoVED themakeover. They both chose to be belle and got a beautiful dress and their hairand makeup and nails done. They will always remember it I am certain. It wasgreat. after that we watched the amazing parade and fireworks. That got overaround 930 and we didn't make it to the car til 11 because of how crowded it wasbut we were glad we had stayed to watch. It was really cool. The kids did reallygreat for such a long day. we all finally got to bed at midnight and decided tosleep in a little on Thursday. We woke up at 8 and I gave the kids baths andthen we went to breakfast and the carousel again at gktw. They also had someDisney characters visiting to get pics taken with. The little ones especiallyloved it. Von was so cute giving them all hugs! Except belle of course lol hehad no interest in seeing her. We headed out to universal studios at 1030. Itwas much easier to get inside and much less crowded! Except the Harry potterarea! We rode some rides in the dr seuss area that were cute and fun. Thenheaded to Harry potter area which was way crowded but really neat. The kids allchose a wand at the wand store. We ate lunch there and all drank butterbeer in acollectable mug. It was yummy. Then we rode some rides there and headed to theJurassic park area. After that we stopped by blahjhjkk for some treats. Thenrode the carosel and headed out. We decided to stop at the bathroom and Graciewas running to catch up with Chloe and I and she tripped over some guys footand face planted it. I called to Brandon cause her nose was bleeding everywhere.She got a big bruise on her knee and a knot on her forehead. She was mostlyconcerned with gettin the blood off of everything, after she was cleaned up shewas back to happy. Brandon had mentioned the other day about her being pigeontoed and she really is. I think we will have to do some physical therapy thanksto All those months in a hospital bed : /we ate dinner at gktw and then wentswimming and shopping at the outlet mall. Friday we went to breakfast andcarosel at gktw again. Then we headed to epcot. The Nemo rides etc were prettyfun. Then we went to Hollywood studios and had a lot of fun there. That nightThey had a show called fantasmic and it was neat with lights and fire and waterand a lot of Disney characters and fireworks. We got back to gktw at 9 andordered pizza since we had an early dinner. Saturday we had breakfast and thenice cream! The kids thought it was so cool that they let u get ice cream forbreakfast. After that we headed to the castle of miracles for Gracie to sign hername on her very own star. Then the star fairy hung it up. Then we headed touniversal studios and had a lot of fun. They had a fun play area and also aBarney show that the little ones loved. Try had a special meet and greet wBarney for us and another little boy w make a wish after the show. We also sawDora and Diego. We went back to the Harry potter part and also dr suess areathat we liked the first time. Also jaws and Jurassic park and shrek 4D . Thatnight we went to a dinner show in Orlando called medieval times. We all reallyenjoyed it. Sunday we woke up and ate breakfast and rode the carosel. Then weheaded to disneys animal kingdom. We rode a few rides and saw a couple liveshows. Te lion king and finding memo musical. The lion king was pretty cool butnone of us really cared for finding memo as a musical. It was kinda lame lol butthe costumes were good :) then we played at the Dino dig. We ate lunch in Asiaand it was really yummy. It was nice to have a different kind of food than thenorm.After lunch we were opening our fortune cookies and Gracie opened hers andit said " you are brave and strong" when Brandon read it out loud I couldn'tbelieve it. It was too true :) the rest of us had lame fortunes but hers wastotally true! I was just looking at her and thinking that you'd never know whatshe has been through just by looking at her. She looks so good and is doing sogood. we went on an African safari in Africa and it was pretty cool. We reallyliked how we got to be so close to the giraffes. We came back to gktw for dinnerand one last swim and one last trip to the ice cream shop :) we had to buy twonew large suitcases to fit all the souvenirs and things we got. Good thing weonly came with 4 bags in the first place. Then we did laundry and packedeverything up so we could enjoy our last half day at sea world.

Ben and Natalie, Gracie's wish helpers, put together a send off party before disneyworld, where they gave us all our tickets etc. We ate at cici's pizza and invited some friends to join us. Then while we were eating, Cinderella walked in! Gracie had no idea this was going to happen! It was such a fun surprise! We ate and had cake and opened some gifts from the make a wish foundation and also Ben and Natalie. Mrs. Shaefer, her kindergarten teacher, also brought her a gift. We had a great time, and especially Gracie!

Alex's Lemonade Stand

Gracie's family is raising $ for childhood cancer research through Alex's Lemonade Stand. Help Gracie's Team reach their fundraising goal. Alex's Lemonade Stand, fighting childhood cancer one cup at a time.